


Let's Go Fly a Kite

by runimpossiblegirl



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, I love the end of mary Poppins, Modern AU, POV Rey (Star Wars), Rey Needs A Hug, Soft Ben Solo, a bit of angst but mostly fluff, beach feels, kite flying tips, mention of canon character death, metions of finnrose, no beta we die like men, rey is sad and so are we, wear a mask even if you can't see the faces of handsome men, yes I've flown several kites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25317703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runimpossiblegirl/pseuds/runimpossiblegirl
Summary: As a first activity to break isolation Rey decides to fly a kite. It can't be that hard if the kids do it in Mary Poppins, right?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	Let's Go Fly a Kite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Violetwilson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violetwilson/gifts).



She has been on lockdown for 3 months. Yes, she’s grateful to work on a place where the lives of the employees are more important than profits, but for someone that grew up alone — _abandoned, Rey, you were abandoned_ — this imposed loneliness has been hard.

Growing up in the foster system meant she never really got stability as a child, and every foster home —even the ones that were good— made her more touch starved because the goodbye would always feel worse if she had memories of hugs and soft touches to take with her. Nobody ever stayed, and she learned to be self sufficient and never depend on anyone. She’s only a little less like that now, after a few years of painful therapy on America.

With things being like that, she never thought she would miss the strangers on the bus, always grumpy on the morning, borderline rude without their caffeine and exhausted on the afternoon, not really caring if they were touching the passenger on the next seat. What she wouldn’t give for an accidental bus touch right now.

She misses, more that anything, her friends. Finn, who also grew up in the system on Britain and seems to be as starved for connections as her, who hugs her just because, whose smile seems to drag everyone around close. She misses overall how brave he is, and how that made her braver in return. She misses those meetings first time in the morning, the same ones where they met and bonded as newbies 3 years ago.

She misses Rose, the first woman to be her friend, to understand her, to force her out of the routine and constantly compliment her for the most ridiculous things. She’s as brave as Finn, and nothing makes her happier that knowing they are in love —she snapped at him on her first day for a dumb comment and then yelled a someone else for not taking his idea in serious consideration. Rey thinks Finn fell that very first day, even if it had to be Rose the one to take the first step 3 months later— and save with their new baby even if that means it’s dangerous for her to visit them. 

She also misses Poe, even if the guy tends to get on her nerves constantly. He’s a one man party, charming, energetic, a bit dramatic and childish. Some people think there’s something between them because they are constantly clashing, but he’s what a big brother feels like to her. _Probably, she wouldn’t really know but she likes to pretend sometimes_. The only reason she would consider him with other eyes is his dog BB, but then Amilyn, his very serious partner for 8 years, wouldn’t be too happy about it.

She finally got her family at 23 on a strange new country and she loves them to pieces but her inability to actually be with them _and not zoom calls do not count_ , is killing her a little on the inside. She knows she’s not really alone. But is hard not to feel like everyone is leaving her behind again after 3 months of isolation. 

_Rey, this is not a situation anyone can control. You know that if everything were normal your friends would be with you just like always. They love you, no matter what your brain is telling you, they know you and love you. Maybe you could try talking to them about it a finding some activities on the outside now that restrictions are more loose_. Her therapist had said. _Just try it, there’s nothing to lose._

So that’s how she had found herself on Amazon, looking for roller skates and paints and a dress that made her remember Mary Poppins and _didn’t the children flew a kite on that movie? I could do that!_ Rose had laughed at her and Finn had said he couldn’t believe he was making them a British stereotype but both had been wearing a big smile helping her pick a design. 

Flying a kite was, of course, something she had never done, so she decided to do some research of the basics, and ended up deciding that the beach was the best place to try it, as the sea breeze would help keeping the kite up, and she probably wouldn’t find that much people there. She knew that she had to be careful with the strings she used as they could cut someone that didn’t see it, and that she would have to run to give the impulse to the kite to rise. Seemed simple enough. 

It’s armed with this internet knowledge and her blue butterfly kite that she ends up on a small beach two days later. She used her bike so she didn’t exposed herself to strangers on an uber, and hasn’t been this excited for something since the random flashmob she and Rose got to see on a mall in February. Maybe her therapist has rights. 

She drops her bike and sets a white and pink blanket next to it, her backpack and water bottle over it. Her polka dress feels lovely on the breeze and there’s so little people around all she can hear is the music of the ocean and seagulls that drop suddenly to the water and then rise just as fast with food on their beaks. It makes her feels small, but in a good way. In a out of her head way. In a the planet is beautiful and mysterious and enormous way.

She loses her chucks —her friends were afraid she could have an accident riding her bike with sandals and she didn’t want to worry them— and walks to the wet sand, sinking her toes in it, feeling the tiny creatures that rush to sink deeper with her intrusion, and laughs. With a smile on her face covered by her mask she walks on until the waves bathe her feet. It’s surprisingly cold and she lets out a little shriek. Looking around to see if anyone caught it, she can only see a figure 50 meters away, all in black, flying a red and black kite — _is it a bat?_!— and certainly not paying attention to her.

She stays there for a few minutes, felling the waves bury her feet more and more every time they leave. Eventually she digs herself out and returns to her stuff, ready to get her butterfly on the air.

Easily enough she takes it out of the protective bags and tightens the strings in the indicated places, then she puts it on the sand, gives the strings some yards of length, takes a deep breath and starts running with her left arm up on the air, but nothing happens. Actually, the only thing that happens is that she can feel the kite dragging on. Uh, it certainly didn’t seem to be this hard on Mary Poppins when half the fucking town was flying them on the street. But Rey is not a quitter. She’s a trash can not a trash can't according to the mug Poe gave her last Christmas. So she walks back, gets in position, and runs again.

Nothing happens.

And neither does the third and fourth time she tries. And now she’s getting frustrated, and then double frustrated because her frustration manifest as tears and she doesn’t want to cry on the beach just because she’s unable to get a kite on the air. Maybe if her parents hadn’t left her alone on a street and had taught her to this childish activity instead of getting high she wouldn’t be crying right now and alone again because—

“Hey, you just need some help with the first impulse."

The deep voice drags Rey out of the spiral.

“What?”

“For your kite,” he answers. “The weight is not distributed on an optimal way so you are having trouble getting it to rise."

“Huh," she says, not really caught up with the conversation. 

He’s tall, probably the tallest man she has ever interacted with. And his black clothes that she saw from afar adapt to his body in a way that makes Rey remember she hasn’t really dated anyone since long before this lockdown began. And he’s wearing gloves. His hair frames his face perfectly in waves that should be illegal to maintain on the beach with the sand, the wind and while flying a kite. But the thing that impresses her the most is his face. He’s using a mask of course, but she can complete the blanks. He’s looking at her with a weird expression — _maybe it’s the random crying, Rey—_ like he would do anything right now for her to stop feeling this way, with more concern that you would pay to a stranger. Deep deep eyes, dark but full of lightness and a constellation of moles on pale skin as far as she can see. She feels like she’s been looking at him for hours when he speaks again.

“I could help you," he says with a tiny smile in his voice, she imagines just the corner of his full mouth rising. “You are not alone. I mean, you don’t have to do it alone if you want to try again."

She feels very small when she answers with a nod, never taking her eyes away from him. It feels like after he says it, it’s an immovable truth: she’s not alone.

He walks behind her, to pick up her blue kite and tells her, “Ok, so you’ll start running and I’ll give it the impulse to rise at the beginning. Don’t stop running until you can actually feel the kite up in the sky, ok? Once this baby it up it’ll be easy. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready."

“Ok, then. Let’s go!”

And Rey turns and starts running, she doesn’t feel the dragging like before and it’s because the stranger is behind her holding it, but eventually she feels the tension from something above her. She keeps running, because she doesn’t know if it’s time for her to stop and running makes her feel happy again, until she hears a “Yeah!" and looks up. Her blue butterfly it’s up in the sky and she feels like crying and laughing again. When she looks down again the man is coming towards her with his bat on the air. Showing off his skills in an endearing way.

“This is great!” she says, still laughing with her whole face.

“It’s nice to hear your laugh again," he says. “Not trying to be creepy, it’s just that I heard you before, close to the water, and then when you looked back I thought you had hurt yourself and needed help. I’m sorry if you were uncomfortable or anything. I know I’m sort of intimidating, dressing on black and on a lonely beach. At least I’ve been told that is why I don’t…“

He stops his babbling. She thinks it’s cute that this big man saw a girl crying and his first thought was to help. There’s not that many people like that these days. You only need to watch the news to see that.

“It’s ok, you were also really helpful. I’d never flew a kite before and came here only armed with faith and a bunch of YouTube tutorials. It was frustrating to fail in the first thing I decided to do since all of this began, but now thanks to you I’m actually doing it! Just like in Mary Poppins!“

He laughs at that. “Yes, it was that movie that made me beg for a new nanny every time my parents had to change the current one. They were never magical and without magic dealing with a terrible child is no fun thing.”

“I’m sure you weren’t that bad."

“Oh, I was. It’s just recently that I’ve been trying to be better and accepting that my parents being constantly busy didn’t mean they didn’t love me. Flying a kite is what my dad and I used to do when he had a free weekend, which wasn’t often, but it made me feel like at the end of that movie.”

“You should come with him, revive some memories.“

“I… he died, actually. Last year, it’s what made me want to be better. At least for my mom.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I said that you must think—”

“Hey, it’s ok. You are right, reviving those good memories is why I’m doing this. Even if my dad is not here anymore, this feels like a way to connect with him. And now it gave me the chance to help someone else. How come you’d never done this before?”

They have been walking slowly down the beach with their kites. The butterfly and the bat seem to dance around each other, never tangling but complementing themselves. She decides to be honest. 

“There was never anyone to teach me. My parents, they left me when I was really young, and even when I kept the hope they would return someday, they never did. I never allowed the foster families I was with to get close to me, so I skipped a lot of small things like this one.”

“I’m really sorry. And if it’s worth anything, you seem like someone I would always return for.”

She feels her heart on her throat, like it’s trying to escape to reach this man. Is it his words or is it the fact she hasn’t really interacted with another human in months? She thinks it’s the first, but doesn’t want to jump to conclusions. That’s not Rey. Rey it’s safe. Hell, it took Rose a whole month of asking her to lunch to accept. It hasn’t even been two hour with this stranger and she doesn’t even know his name.

“It’s just, it has been so hard, you know? Learning to be alone again? My friends, I love them but they feel so far away in a phone screen. It’s like I’ve been abandoned on a street all over again.” She can feel a tear in her cheek before getting in her mask.

“I know that touching is not really recommended right now but… may I hug you?”

And before she can really think about it she’s nodding and then he has his arm wrapped around her, his whole fame caging and protecting her. It’s the best hug she’s ever had bar none. She could get sick and she wouldn’t really care as long as he doesn’t let her go. She’s crying and his gloved hand is caressing her hair in the loveliest way. _This is what it must feel to be loved._

The time passes and he doesn’t let her go, he eventually starts humming “Let’s go fly a kite" and balancing her side to side slowly and she feels her smile return. It’s only then that she realizes their beautiful kites are on the sand, completely tangled and she separates from him with a “Oh, no!”

But he only laughs and grabs them. “I can save them… and maybe return it to you here some other day?”

She feels full of the very same butterflies and bats he’s caring in his hands. “I’d like that.”

They walk toward her stuff, wordlessly knowing it’s time to go. Once they reach her blanket and she gets on her bike he ask, “Friday?”

It’s Tuesday today and she doesn’t think she can wait that long. So she betrays safe Rey and responds, “Tomorrow?“

And she can feel the smile she can’t see because of the stupid face mask as he says yes.

“It’s Ben, by the way.”

“Rey.”

“See you tomorrow, Rey.”

“See you tomorrow, Ben."

She starts to leave before turning one last time to look at him, and she can hear him say softly, “Thanks for that, dad.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was for Violet, who just got a kite and constantly brightens my TL 
> 
> Kite flying is a big thing here where I live, it's an actual sort of typical activity in out country celebrations so in September you can buy them anywhere and see people flying them with their kids. The "they can cut" warning is real. They are dangerous because even when the string is thin the tension once is up is enough to slice someone skin. Please never let your attention wander if you decide to do it.
> 
> Any mistake is mine only :)


End file.
